"...The terrifying tides of mana have ravaged this world for nearly a hundred years. Every race is on the verge of extinction, the boundaries between all things are blurring, and their essences are merging..."
Zhou Jue opened his eyes with difficulty. His eyelids and body felt heavy, as though he had just woken from a deep dream.
A youthful voice poured into his ears, and his brain, gradually starting to work, began making sense of some game-specific terms.
He understood his current situation. This was clearly the opening cinematic of a major game.
And World of Disorder had clearly done a good job in this respect. The player's movements and perspective weren't fixed; they could move however they liked as long as they didn't interfere with the story.
Was this rendered in real time? I wonder if a secondhand headset can handle it...
Zhou Jue reached up and scratched his head, wanting to check how hot the headset was getting, afraid he would end up with roasted brains after logging out.
That was perfectly understandable. With this sort of fake full-immersion game, the simplest way to log out was to take off the headset.
As long as he concentrated sufficiently on his movements and senses, he could receive information from both reality and the game at once.
But this time, all Zhou Jue grabbed was a tangled mess of hair.
Is this right?
He snapped fully alert.
Why can't I feel the headset?
Zhou Jue concentrated furiously and kicked hard to the side, only to discover that his movements really couldn't carry over to the outside world.
His body in the real world was currently lying on a single bed against the wall. That kick should have brought a little dull pain and a cool sensation, but now he felt nothing.
Well, saying he felt absolutely nothing wasn't quite right. At least what he kicked was soft.
"What'd you kick me for?"
A voice rang out beside Zhou Jue's ear.
He turned to see a humanoid creature that looked seventy or eighty percent human, with traces of cuts and stitching on his body, looking at him in confusion.
A translucent ID floated above his head: [Do Some Farm Work].
After a brief silence, player [Zhongde] punched player [Do Some Farm Work] in the face:
"Finally caught you, you little bastard!"
"My bad, my bad! Cut it out, cut it out."
Player [Do Some Farm Work] hurriedly pushed [Zhongde]'s hand away and whispered as he looked at the boy speaking in the dim hall:
"We're in a cutscene. Fight later."
[Zhongde] felt he did have a point and eased up. With their four hands tangled together, the two maintained a bizarre balance as they waited for the opening cinematic to end.
"...O souls from the most ancient times, may you, in this new age..."
At the same time, the person up ahead broke off his speech and looked their way:
"I understand your joy at being reborn, Soul Returners, but please hear out the world's current situation first. Otherwise, you may encounter unexpected dangers."
"Holy shit!" ×4
At that moment, not only were [Zhongde] and [Do Some Farm Work], still posed like an abstract human sculpture, stunned, but the other two players, [Howling Pothos] and [Good Times Don't Last], were stunned too-
The opening cinematic was actually this intelligent?! How humanlike did this NPC have to be to improvise to this degree?!
That instant alone raised three of their expectations for the game another notch. As for player [Good Times Don't Last]-
As a complete newbie, he simply didn't understand it but thought it was impressive.
After experiencing the NPC's intelligence, the players, gradually regaining their ability to think and observe, began examining the NPC delivering his opening speech.
This boy was probably the young lord mentioned in the game's introduction. According to the setting, they were all undying wandering souls from ancient times, able to touch this world once more thanks to this young man's Soul Summoning, attaching themselves to bodies and becoming Soul Returners.
As far as the setting went, it was perfectly reasonable. No problems there.
Although they were summoner and summoned, in terms of seniority, the players were countless generations above him. The young NPC was indeed very polite, too. It made for a pretty good backstory.
Each had his own thoughts. While considering the setting, they continued taking in the background information from the boy and examining their surroundings, trying to find traces of reused assets.
This was an old castle, after all. Some repeated textures and small models should have been perfectly normal.
With the naked eye alone, the four really couldn't find any obvious problems for the time being. Three minutes later, the introduction to the world finally drew to a close.
The boy's tone gradually grew slightly more serious, and finally, he "quoted" an outrageous statement to conclude World of Disorder's opening cinematic:
"Although reproduction in this world has become utterly chaotic, I still firmly believe-
"Humans should fuck humans, and monsters should fuck monsters!
"My name is Ed Adrian, and I swear that in this lifetime, I will do everything in my power to restore this world to its proper order!"
His opening speech finished, Ed walked toward the four from the depths of the castle hall, his expression turning gentle again:
"Have you Soul Returners adjusted to your new bodies? If you feel any discomfort, I can make minor adjustments."
The four twisted their necks and stretched their legs. These bodies felt different from their original factory parts, but there really weren't any nasty bugs affecting their controls, so they all shook their heads.
Because of the intelligence Ed had displayed earlier, and because all four knew how rare this testing opportunity was, they didn't dare mess with the NPC as they would in a normal game. They simply stood there expectantly, waiting for him to assign quests.
Ed noticed, of course, but chose to turn and leave.
I'm not actually a bot, but I'm playing one, so a little unreasonableness is only reasonable. That'll make it easier to optimize the gameplay experience later.
Ed walked farther and farther away, leaving the four looking at one another.
[Zhongde]: "That's it?"
[Do Some Farm Work]: "I know it's still in testing, but isn't this a little too much freedom?"
[Howling Pothos]: "This should be part of the test. Or maybe the tutorial system isn't finished yet. So what we should do now is..."
[Good Times Don't Last]: "I know this one. 'Want to get rich? Punch trees first.' They've even got axes ready for us over there."
At that, the other three looked toward a corner of the castle hall, where four sets of tools, including axes and short spears, had been neatly laid out. They all looked thoughtful.
It seemed [Good Times Don't Last] had the right idea. At a time like this, they ought to gather resources and chop wood. As for guidance, perhaps this was the charm of minimal guidance.
Having settled on their basic objective, the four picked up axes and short spears and headed toward the castle gates, ready to see just what this World of Disorder looked like.
Not far behind them, Ed smiled, marveling at how reliable the players he had chosen were, as he picked up a burlap sack and slowly followed the four.